Chapter 412: Chapter 351: Numb
Fortunately, Yang Xiao had been diligent in training recently; if it had been himself from a year ago, even if he had managed to escape by luck, he would have lost due to complete exhaustion.
Soon, the silhouette of the Du Family Ancestral Home slowly emerged in the mist, and just as he rushed towards the door of the ancestral home, behind the line drawn with incense, Yang Xiao’s legs weakened, nearly collapsing to the ground, his physical and mental energy at their limits.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay conscious. Yang Xiao knew it wasn’t the time to rest yet. He stepped onto the stairs, pulled out a round-headed wooden stick from the bamboo tube, and the next second, he knocked forcefully on the wooden clapper hanging by the door.
Upon hearing the clapper, Tong Han, who had been sitting on the steps outside the room, stood up abruptly, looking towards the door. Her ice-cold expression softened; she had full confidence in Yang Xiao.
"It’s Chu Xi who has come back!" Cheng Cha’s eyes lit up with excitement.
As Yang Xiao’s staggering figure appeared in their field of vision, Cheng Cha couldn’t help frowning. He instinctively wanted to stop Tong Han, but Tong Han didn’t pay him any attention, pushing him aside and running towards Yang Xiao to support him, "How are you?"
"I’m okay," Yang Xiao swallowed, sighing with a look of regret, "I got the thing hidden in the old village chief’s mouth, but sadly, I couldn’t bring it back."
"It’s good that you’re back," Tong Han comforted.
In the dim light, Yang Xiao suddenly noticed that Tong Han’s right hand was still bleeding, the wound mangled, "Why haven’t you treated your wound?"
"It’s nothing," Tong Han’s face showed indifference as if the injury was not hers, the hardships experienced at the Yu Yuan Sect having numbed her to pain.
"How can this be?" Yang Xiao quickly walked to the door, knocking hard, "There’s hemostatic powder inside the room, throw some out to us."
The room was silent. Yang Xiao understood their reluctance; after all, people had died on the last two missions, so asking them to open the door was indeed asking too much, "No need to open the door; throw the powder out the back window, and we’ll pick it up ourselves," Yang Xiao proposed.
But even with such a request, no one in the room responded. After a while, they heard the sound of a cabinet being opened. Yang Xiao remembered that the powder was stored in the wooden cabinet, so someone seemed willing to help. But the next second, Quan Doufeng intervened, "You can’t give them the powder. What if... what if they are imposters?"
"We three will just stand right here, waiting for you to throw the powder from the back window, then we’ll go pick it up," Cheng Cha spoke up, giving assurance.
"That won’t do either," Quan Doufeng said resolutely.
Having lost the finger bone, Yang Xiao was already feeling frustrated. Upon hearing Quan Doufeng’s voice, imagining the look on his face right now, anger flared up within Yang Xiao. He shoved Tong Han aside and fiercely kicked the door, making a "bang" sound as the door trembled violently, shocking everyone inside. Quan Doufeng’s screams were incessant.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
After several kicks, the door, already in disrepair and with badly corroded hinges, could not withstand such force. Sui Chengguo, experienced and inside the room, judged that Yang Xiao and his group were indeed genuine, and quickly asked them to stop kicking before stepping forward to open the door.
The moment the door opened, Yang Xiao pushed past Sui Chengguo, who tried to block him, going straight for Quan Doufeng and landed a punch on his face. If it weren’t for being held back by several others, Quan Doufeng would not have been able to escape a severe beating. This left Mi Shulu Youcheng and the others dumbfounded, unclear why Yang Xiao was so angry, suspecting a personal vendetta between him and Quan Doufeng.
Quan Doufeng cried from being struck, his right cheek swelling instantly. Seeing Yang Xiao being pulled away, he dared to raise his voice in protest, "He’s hitting people! By what right is he hitting people? He dare to hit me today; next time he could kill you. There’s no justice!"
"Slap!" Tong Han struck back with a slap, finally bringing peace to the room.
Mi Shu carefully helped Tong Han wash her wound with water and then sprinkled on some powder, while Yang Xiao, Cheng Cha, and Sui Chengguo gathered around the table to discuss what had happened during the mission.
As for Quan Doufeng, no one paid him any attention. Nobody there was a fool; it would be dumb to offend Yang Xiao and Tong Han over someone so pointless.
"This is Mangjia Village, and the ones who usurped the nests are from Du Family Village?" After hearing Yang Xiao’s account, Sui Chengguo also couldn’t help but take a deep breath, truly beyond his expectations.
Yang Xiao took out the Buddha Beads, with the Mangjia character marking serving as evidence. Tong Han added that she had taken the beads from the Chief of Mang Village’s wrist, and aside from the chief, other Mangjia Villagers also customarily wore Buddha Beads—that village was the real Buddhist one.
When they heard about Yang Xiao dropping the finger bone into Du San’s yard, attracting the Ghost Villagers to swarm in, everyone’s faces showed intrigue, and Sui Chengguo stood up without concealing his admiration for Yang Xiao, "Badass, brother! That was an excellent move to redirect the trouble!"
Upon learning that Du San had died, the others couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. This man could be said to be Du Family Village’s number one assassin. If nothing else, Liu Haiping and Hu Yanming must have died at his hands. Now that he had been killed, and moreover by the Ghost Villagers, it was indeed gratifying.
Yang Xiao didn’t mind too much; given the situation at that time, he had no other choice but to think that if he were going to die, he might as well take someone with him and eliminate this menace for his teammates.
After a moment, Yang Xiao seemed to suddenly think of something and turned to look at Cheng Cha and Tong Han, "Have you ever heard someone calling your name from behind?"
"No," Tong Han shook his head.
After carefully recalling, Cheng Cha affirmed with certainty, "No."
"Me neither," Yang Xiao frowned, "In several tasks the people from Du Family Village emphasized to us that we have to be careful of someone calling our name from behind and that we must never look back; now it seems very likely that this is a trick by the people of Du Family Village. Only they would call out from behind."
Sui Chengguo nodded repeatedly, "Right, my thoughts are the same as Chu’s. I’ve seen the heads of Liu Haiping and Hu Yanming; all of them were chopped from behind, and from the way it was done, it should be Du San."
Sui Chengguo had personally witnessed Du San chopping trees with a knife and as an expert, he could tell immediately from his skill that Du San’s sword techniques were highly professional. It wasn’t just the expertise of an ordinary skilled family; the way he applied force and controlled his strength was nothing but perfect.
He then slyly complimented Yang Xiao, saying if Yang Xiao hadn’t eliminated this menace beforehand, once they had a fallout with Du Family Village in the end, this Du San alone would have been enough trouble for them, and no one could have matched him one-on-one.
After discussing, everyone concluded that in the upcoming tasks, if they heard someone calling their name from behind, they should run immediately. It was very likely an ambush by the Du Family .
Although the night was dangerous, Yang Xiao still preferred the task after the third watch of the night. During that time, the unjustly deceased ghosts roamed the village, but at the same time, people from Du Family Village dared not leave their homes. This way, they only needed to focus on facing the ghosts and not worry about covert attacks from the Du Family people.
After clarifying the clues, everyone rested, as there was still a busy day ahead, and since Yang Xiao and two others had gone out to perform tasks at night, others took turns keeping watch.
In fact, Yang Xiao also felt that it was pointless to keep watch during this task, but without someone vigilant, nobody could sleep peacefully.
A night without dreams, and the next morning, shortly after the crowing of roosters, urgent footsteps sounded outside, "My Lords, something terrible has happened!" The clamoring voice of the maidservant Xiao Zui came from outside, "Brother Du San... He’s met with trouble!"
Putting on the appearance of having just woken up, led by Xiao Zui, Yang Xiao, Sui Chengguo, and Cheng Cha arrived at the courtyard where Du San lived. They hadn’t approached the gate yet when a pungent odor of rotting flesh hit them. Even though they were mentally prepared, the horrifying scene in the courtyard still stunned them. They saw no intact limbs within their sight; the entirety of the courtyard was littered with shattered flesh and remains.
The doors and windows of the house were smashed, and small chunks of skin and flesh clung to the walls. The scene was so gruesome it pushed the limits of one’s endurance.
Yang Xiao acted extremely frightened, his face drained of color as he seized Xiao Zui’s wrist and roared at her, "What happened? How... How did Brother Du San end up like this?"
"I don’t know, I really don’t know." Xiao Zui was also scared out of her wits, her face sobbing and her body trembling nonstop, "I also just received the news... the patriarch asked me to bring you here. I heard it was the villagers who rose early and found Brother Du San’s door open. Out of curiosity, they came over and then..."
"The head?" Cheng Cha suddenly asked, "Where is Brother Du San’s head?"
"His head was smashed." A voice suddenly came from inside the house, and the next second, a middle-aged man emerged from the room, still holding a piece of rotten flesh.
When the man reached Yang Xiao and the others, he looked each of them over and then lifted his hand to show them the piece of rotting flesh, with pale bone protruding around its edges. To Yang Xiao’s astonishment, it was a piece of skull, still with sparse hair attached.
"Brother Du San, how could you just leave like this? Didn’t we agree to break the curse together?" Tears streamed down Cheng Cha’s face, "Who? Who is behind your death?"
Bloodied footprints were all over the courtyard. Yang Xiao could imagine that Du San must have died in extreme pain; his body was torn apart, and even his head was crushed. But this inadvertently made things easier for Yang Xiao. Now that the head was smashed, Du San was undoubtedly dead and could no longer reveal anything about the previous night. This meant they were safe.
"Where were you when Du San died last night?" The middle-aged man fixed his gaze on Yang Xiao and casually inquired.
Yang Xiao immediately sensed the hostility from the newcomer; this man had indirectly set a trap for him. How could he possibly know when Du San died unless he was there at the scene?
"I’m not sure of the exact time, but... I think I was in the room, in the ancestral home," Yang Xiao said with sincerity, not betraying any emotion.
"By the way, how is Aunt Du?" Cheng Cha took the opportunity to change the subject.
"Not good, she also died. But the scene was different than this; her body was stolen, leaving her head behind," the middle-aged man spoke in a hoarse voice.
